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I have not shown anything for a long time. And I have not painted anything for a couple of months. Finally I had a couple of hours of free time and painted that Bones Vampire. As usually, all I'm aiming for is tabletop "quality".
For a first mini after a month-long break, done in a couple of hours I'm quite satisfied. I think I'm going to do a bit more with the inner side of the cape (more highlights). Any constructive criticism welcome.

Well, now.
This is a bit of an unusual project. Earlier this year @malefactus kindly sent me some unpainted miniatures that he thought I could get some use out of. Among them was an already based and primed copy of Reaper's 14016, Judas Bloodspire, Necropolis Warlord, sculpted by the legendary Werner Klocke.
I had already painted a quickie version the Bones version of the sculpt, 77160: Judas Bloodspire, Vampire and had discovered how fun the sculpt was, so I was pleased to have another to paint, especially since it was mounted on one of malefactus' inimitable bases.
I am not entirely sure how malefactus put this together. The central cylinder and the base seem to be wood. He sculpted pavement on the upper base and added something like moss and his signature mushrooms and primed the whole thing in black with white brushed over it.
In transit the cape (whose attachment is always a delicate piece of this figure) had come loose, so I cleaned the glue off it and set it aside to paint separately and rejoin later.
While playing around with how to attach the cape I discovered a different angle of attachment from the standard pose which appears to be more stable, and which I plan to try. More details on that later, or you can check out the link.
All paints used are Golden Matte Fluid Acrylics. Color mixes are (usually) noted, but not exact ratios.
Questions are welcomed and I will try to answer them. Critiques are appreciated.
Here the figure is almost as malefactus sent it to me. I have set aside his cape and already put a light wash of green on the mossy bits. This was a simple transparent mix of Phthalocyanine Green and Burnt Sienna, my go-to mix for foliage. It's completely transparent and acts like a watercolor wash.
I layered on several coats of varying mixes of the two pigments, sometimes adding a little Ultramarine Blue, also a transparent color, or Hansa Yellow Opaque, which despite its name is only semi-translucent. This lets all of malefactus' shading show through.
I like to paint skin and especially faces before the rest of the figure. I've been painting up my vampire figures with completely colorless skin mixed from Titanium White and Carbon Black, so I did that here. The metal figure has much more delicate details than the Bones. The fangs are a mix of Titanium White and Yellow Ochre and the lips and eyes are pure Red Oxide and Hansa Yellow Opaque with Carbon Black.
For a color scheme I decided on a contrast to my Bones Judas Bloodspire, who had white hair, a red cloak, blue drapery and a rather misunderstood outfit (I had painted him very quickly, only intending him for tabletop use. I fell in love with the sculpt as I painted.) This one will have a dark blueish or purple cape (still thinking about that), a red greatcoat, and brown hair (maybe with some white streaks. I do like white streaks.).
I didn't take pix of the hair painting, but you can see the results in the cape-position testing pictures here. His hair was, I believe, underlaid in a medium brown mixed from Burnt Sienna with a little Ultramarine Blue and Yellow Ochre and Titanium White, then glazed with Burnt Umber and maybe some Burnt Sienna too. (Browns are complex!) No highlights yet. I also painted malefactus' paving stones with a cold grey mixed from Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, and Titanium White, visible in some photos.
Next: Beginning the figure.

One of my favorite Fantasy races are the Undead, followed by Chaos and Reptilians.
I already have my Lost World Project which tells a tale of Conquistadores, Reptilians, Dinosaurs, Undead and a lot more.
However those Undead are the Egyptian Style and Pirate/Jungle style.
This thread will be filled with my beloved Gothic Undead, Demons, Monsters and all things that go bump in the night.
In my Lost World Project I tell an ongoing story, here I will post about all other dark things without coherency.
There might be snippets of loose stories to accompany a mini or not...
I hope you guys and gals and creatures will like it.
Let's kick off with the critters I painted a while ago to get a feel of what is coming.
Enjoy! ( or not)
Bats and a Murder of Crows
EDIT: I will include some Bones and minis. The bulk will be metal and I want to give this an oldschool vibe.
Preferred minis will be, Reaper, Grenadier, Ral Partha, Rafm, Metal Magic, Otherworld and Early Citadel.
The Asian Undead will be from Zenith since I backed the Kensei Undead Samurai KS and will get their own thread.
Eldessa Necromancer
Ral Partha Female Vampire
Lurien and Aysa
Bat Demon

Painted this up for Rat13 as part of the Summer Exchange. Wanted to do a limited summer/fall color scheme and I am happy with how he turned out. These are not the best pictures in the world as they were taken quickly before packing him up.

This is the classic Reaper 02551, Monique Denoir. There are some gorgeously painted examples of her out there.
Some of this post is quoted from an earlier post, since I find that giving information in each thread is useful, even if in the big picture it's redundant.
All paints used are Golden Matte Fluid Acrylics. Color mixes are (usually) noted, but not exact ratios.
Questions are welcomed and I will try to answer them. Critiques are appreciated.
Monique Denoir is a Werner Klocke scupt. Her face is classical and lovely. She's certainly popular, and there are many beautifully painted versions out there.
This is the way I usually start miniature figures: Lightly primed with Titanium White, then when that is dry, washing it over with Burnt Umber. Burnt Umber is a dark, transparent pigment that settles into crannies when thinned down and shows the details very well. (I seem to be having a little trouble with it crackling just a bit in some areas, though.) It also gives a nice warm undertone to later paint layers (even though, as I've said before, with a vampire you don't necessarily want "warmth".)
I like to paint skin first as something of the undermost layer. After I have the skin more or less smooth and correct I paint the features.
I have been painting up vampires with stark white skin because I don't seem to have the knack to make them look undead if there is even a little flesh tone in their skin.
This is almost the only time I ever mix grey from pure black and white (rather than a complex mix of brighter colors). The flatness of tone conveys that something is wrong with the individual, and the simplicity of color mix is very easy to shade.
I started with a thin wash of pure Titanium White on her face, bust, and hands (I got her right hand wrong, I see in the photos. I missed her right thumb and painted up part of the sword instead. Be assured Werner Klocke's sculpt is much less clumsy than that. I will correct it later.).
The first approximation of shadows are added, mixed from simple Titanium White and Carbon Black.
And some darker and lighter greys. At the moment the shading is very stylized.

Well, I decided to start another WIP. This one a sort of Halloween theme. The Vampress Siobhana, Vampiress by reaper. Got some work done on her awhile ago and decided in the spirit of the season to try and finish her up. Unfortunately I couldn't remember exactly the method I painted up the face, so I got as close as I could on the legs and hands. Here's where she is at the moment.
As always, any C&C is always welcome.

Nearly finished with the Dungeon Dwellers special from Reaper. Will add a goblet (is that just red wine?) to the base and have a final go at highlights.
The base is thin Cork sheet from The Range (if you are in the UK) layered up. It tears very easily but good for things like this.

I have a Halloween themed adventure coming up, and I have been hyping how scary and gory it will be to the players. Unbeknownst to them, it will actually be a lighthearted romp featuring these Halloween themed cereal monsters! Instead of horror and frights, the players will be solving goofy puzzles, trick-or-treating with monsters, and hopefully having a fun time!
I enjoyed painting these figs, especially the Clay Golem (77170) for Frankenberry, which was mostly an experiment in layering paints. The Vampire (77282) as Count Chocula was most challenging, as I was limited to a brown palette. Critiques and advice are always welcome! Thanks in advance!

Some more 3D prints for my recent Dungeons & Dragons games.
First is my fiance's Half-Elf Warlock, designed by HeroForge and printed on my Ender-3.
Next, a Goliath Barbarian in the same game, the file was designed by the talented Miguel Zavala/DM Workshop.
Last is the infamous Strahd von Zarovich, printed for our recently finished "Curse of Strahd" campaign. This design was also by Miguel Zavala.

I found this to be one of the more challenging figures I've painted. A lot of skin, a lot of hair, and a lot of thin strands of hair next to skin.
I went with the Evening Sky triad for his cloak, since it goes nicely with the Red Hair triad I used on his friend. With both of those I only highlighted to mid range, as I didn't think bright highlights would match the whole midnight tryst thing they've got going on.
It's barely visible in the picture, but at the bottom of her right eye is a very thin line of black to denote her eyelid. As much as I'd like to claim skill in getting it there, it was pure luck more than anything.The strands of her hair covering his head don't quite match my original mix, as I had no idea they were there until I went to finish his skin.

Hi all, I thought you might like to see the Mordheim gang I just finished, particularly because it features a bunch of Reaper figures. It's hard to believe I started this over ten years ago. They sat around for years with a good portion done, and lately I've had my old projects in my sites and am finishing them off.
Mordheim Undead Gang
I wrote about them and shared more pics in a blog post here: https://belchedfromthedepths.blogspot.com/2018/06/mordheim-undead-gang.html
More pics of the reaper ones:
Reaper Matthias the Twisted, Vampire
I shared the vampire already here, so you may have seen him already. New backdrop with this pic for consistency.
Reaper Gravedigger
Reaper humans are too tall, IMO, to mix in generally with Mordheim figures, but the vampire and gravedigger are conscious exceptions as they fit right in towering over their fellows.
There was no way I wasn't going to have this Reaper monkey in the crew. He's from a familiars pack.
Reaper Ghouls and Ghast
Reaper Hellhounds
Last up are these Reaper hellhounds, or dire wolves, in Mordheim game terms. I was and am thinking of them as black dogs of yore like the barghest rather than wolves.

This is Hasslefree's HFA181: Big Charles, painted up as a vampire (although he could do duty for something else awful and inhuman as well, maybe a zombie). I had accidentally acquired two of him and this seemed a reasonable use for the extra one, especially since one of my GMs is running a vampire-heavy campaign.
He hasn't got a shadow on purpose because vampire ...
There is no WIP thread. Critiques, questions, and comments are welcome, as always.

This is the fun Bobby Jackson sculpt 02867: Matthias the Twisted, concept art by Talin. He(?)'s a lassic rat-lovin' nosferatu type vampire with an awesome wardrobe and a great pose.
He has a lot of great details, including three tiny rats! (They are 28mm scale. They are really tiny.)
WIP thread here.

The GM said we needed a nosferatu, so here we are.
This is Reaper's 02867: Matthias the Twisted, a gnarly rattish vampire.
All paints used are Golden Matte Fluid Acrylics. Color mixes are (usually) noted, but not exact ratios.
Questions are welcomed and I will try to answer them. Critiques are appreciated.
This is the way I usually start miniature figures: Lightly primed with Titanium White, then when that is dry, washing it over with Burnt Umber. Burnt Umber is a dark, transparent pigment that settles into crannies when thinned down and shows the details very well. It also gives a nice warm undertone to later paint layers.
(I have to remember that I experimented with a cold blue-grey wash on some vampire figures that avoided all the nice warm undertones.)
I paint vampires with stark white skin, shaded with flat greys mixed from Titanium White and Carbon Black. This is almost the only time I ever use such a simple mix for greys.
The first layer is a thinned white (blodginess is the underpainting showing through).
Steps in shading:

Rescued from my shelf of shame thanks to a suggestion from Inarah. Vampire striking a dramatic pose. I get the feeling she's not too worried about any pesky wooden stakes in that armour. Comments and criticism are welcome.

My current project from my Shelf of Shame. She got abandoned when I couldn't figure out what to do about damage to the figure around her mouth. I'm going to use her to practice NMM.
Flesh painted. I used the fair skin triad with pure white added for highlights and imperial purple added to the shadows. I'm undecided about her eyes as yet. I'm wavering between a dull lifeless pale blue or bright yellow and orange.
For the armour I'm using the night sky triad with black added to the shadows and pure white added for the highlights. Only a little bit of blending done so far on her left shoulder, arm and hip. Some of the convex shapes are causing me to do mental gymnastics to figure out where the highlights should be. Her hair is the undead flesh triad with imperial purple added to the shadows and pure white added to the highlights. The gems will be bright flaming yellow/orange which is why I'm considering whether the eyes should be yellow too. I might dull down the gems to red and give her bright yellow eyes.

This is Reaper 03042, the second version of Morrdha, Vampire Noble, sculpted by Bob Ridolfi.
I don't know what his story is, but both versions are casting something from a book of Up to No Good, and both have a little demon thing lurking at their feet.
I loved the lively cape on this figure, and the melodrama. I decided to paint him ginger and make his armor look appallingly rusty.
Oh, right, and while I did not exactly do NMM or anything, I did paint his sword with pigmented colors instead of my usual sloshing on of metallic silver.
There is no WIP thread, but I would be happy to answer questions. Comments and critiques are also welcome.

This is one of the three figures from sculptor Gene Van Horne's set 50157: Townsfolk: Ladies of the Night (or as I prefer to think of them, Women of the Regrettable Fashion Choices). I painted her up as a vampire in an attempt to show the dusky skin of the undead PoC, but I'm not sure I quite managed it.
Anyhow, I really enjoyed using all sorts of unlikely colors that ought to scream "Beware!" to anyone paying attention.
There is no WIP thread for this figure, but as always comments, critiques, and questions are welcome.

These are the set BFM MLS003 from Bad Squiddo, which I have discovered is called "Vampire Thralls", although in my notes I call them "feral vampires" and I think of them as more unaffiliated vampire pirates or swashbucklers.
(Although thinking about it, it would be really difficult to be a vampire pirate, what with the total lack of shade and all.)
I painted one of them up blonde, because blonde vampires look extra creepy.
There is a WIP thread here.
As ever, comments, critiques, and questions are welcome.

(Note: I actually started these a while back, though they are not done yet. This is a bit less of a WIP thread than a how-I-got-here-so-far thread, which I will update as I get my old pictures organized. Questions and comments and critiques are, as always, welcome.)
Last summer Bad Squiddo Games hosted a brief Kickstarter, "My Last Sunrise," of an assortment of Gothic horror minis centered around vampires. These two stood out to me as a little beyond the Hammer horror ethos of most of the other figures. While I was painting them I thought of them as "Feral Vampires," although when I just rechecked they are called "Vampire Thralls."
I dunno. They don't look very thrall-like to me.
Their tag line in the Kickstarter was "Float about in my night dress cooing for scraps? No way. I hunt my own meal."
Anyhow, they have a fun, odd, lady pirate or highwayman look.
All paints used are Golden Matte Fluid Acrylics. Color mixes are (usually) noted, but not exact ratios.
Questions are welcomed and I will try to answer them. Critiques are appreciated.
This is a slight deviation from how I prime figures. Normally I prime them with Titanium White (which I did here) and then wash over them with Burnt Umber to bring out the details. These I wanted kind of cold-looking, so I washed them with a cold dark grey mixed from Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine Blue.
That's them on the left. For a while I was including Bad Squiddo's "Dracula" in the photos, so you get a free peek at that too.
And as per usual, the first thing I did was their skin. In contrast to the skin of living humans, I have been painting vampire skin in stark black-and-white mixed from Titanium White and Carbon Black. The very first layer is thinned Titanium White, then pale shadows of the lightest grey.

This is Reaper's 14184: Bloodseeker Vampire, Necropolis Solo, sculpted by Matt Gubser. There isn't a WIP thread.
I think he's just supposed to be some vampire mook foot soldier. I was scrolling through the Reaper catalogue looking for vampires and this one looked kind of interesting and dynamic without any fancy armor or angst. I especially liked that expressive cape.
This was also an experiment in painting with a subdued palette. So many of my figures get so bright ... I thought I'd try something with mainly earth tones.
Comments and critiques are welcome, as always.
(After I took these pictures I realized I had gotten a little silver paint on the black edge of his base. It's been fixed.)